Blog

Those who live in and around the Dominican Republic’s Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo UNESCO Biosphere Reserve have a first-hand understanding of the costly realities of climate change. Harsh, dry conditions and extreme weather make climate risks part of daily life and a top consideration in efforts to protect endemic species.

• 01/07/2021
• Jamie Carson, Elizabeth Hutchison

In mid-2020, Climatelinks added sector pages to its website. The 14 pages, accessible by hovering your mouse over “What We Do” in the website’s top navigation menu, showcase sector-specific work on climate change that USAID is undertaking in a variety of contexts. Each sector page houses an introductory overview detailing related climate impacts and stressors, as well as potential solutions.

• 12/30/2020
• Stephan Hardeman

Photos are a great way to not only capture climate programming in action, but to tell one’s story. The Climatelinks photo gallery has more than 230 photos depicting climate and development, from gender and inclusion to natural resource management.
Below are the five most popular photos of 2020. Let us know if you have a favorite photo.

• 12/29/2020
• Isabela Barriga

In 2020, the Climatelinks community focused on a broad range of monthly themes, including disaster risk management, private sector engagement, energy, and sustainable landscapes. Below you’ll find a selection of great stories that were not as heavily viewed, and that you may have missed when they were originally posted:

• 12/23/2020
• Stephan Hardeman

In July 2019, USAID launched a new Environmental and Natural Resource Management (ENRM) Framework to coordinate, unify, and elevate environmental and natural resource management across the Agency. The Framework outlines a unifying vision to address emerging challenges and the most critical threats to the environment and development, and serves as a guiding document for cross-sectoral investments in environmental and natural resource management.

• 12/07/2020
• Christine Chumbler

The end of USAID’s five-year LESTARI project (2015-2020) in Indonesia is an opportunity to recognize USAID’s collective achievements with the Government of Indonesia in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from land use in both biodiverse and carbon-rich landscapes.

• 11/02/2020
• Tedi Rabold

This is the first of three blogs examining the lessons and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for sustainable landscapes programs. At a time when everyone is focused on the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) some might think that ongoing efforts to support programming in sustainable landscapes have little to offer at the current moment.

• 10/19/2020
• Eric Haxthausen

Although half of global mangrove deforestation since 2000 has been in Indonesia, Bintuni Bay and Mimika District have some of the largest intact areas of mangroves in the world. These two areas are also home to many indigenous groups and have special autonomous governance status and exceptional biodiversity.

• 09/24/2020
• Dr. Eric Hyman

In Central Malawi, nestled below Chipata Mountain and slightly to the west of Lake Malawi, lies Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, Malawi’s largest remaining wild landscape and oldest wildlife reserve. The reserve was home to 1,500 elephants in the 1990s. By 2015, there were fewer than 100 left.

• 09/23/2020
• John Kerkering, Katie Moulton

The ways we use land—for instance, agriculture, forestry, urban development, or ecosystem protection—has long-term impacts on global climate change. Approximately one quarter of net global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come directly from land use (like agriculture) and land use change (like deforestation).

• 09/22/2020
• Noel Gurwick, Isabela Barriga, Julia Bradley-Cook

Los bosques cubren 69 millones de hectáreas en Perú, y representan casi un 60% del país (MINAM 2014). Las Regiones Loreto y Ucayali son las dos regiones amazónicas más grandes del Perú y están tradicionalmente ocupadas y protegidas por Pueblos Indígenas, asentados en comunidades nativas.

• 09/09/2020
• Isabela Barriga

Smallholder rubber plantations represent a threat and an opportunity for carbon stock and biodiversity in Indonesia. A threat because poor agriculture and forestry practices lead to overuse of pesticides and fertilizers, water and river pollution and deforestation; and an opportunity because smallholder rubber plots hold a much higher biodiversity and carbon stock than their most common alternative: palm oil monoculture.

• 08/28/2020
• USAID Green Invest Asia 

Deforestation, forest degradation, poaching, and environmental problems caused by climate change pose serious threats to many of West Africa’s already fragile ecosystems, including the region’s biodiversity-rich forests. Award-winning international journalist David Goodman learned about the severity of these threats as he traveled to the countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia to document the work of the USAID-funded West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change (WA BiCC) Program.

• 08/26/2020
• West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change program

Why do many community-based forestry enterprises (CBFEs) perform poorly even after years of donor and government investment? This was one of the questions that motivated a USAID Productive Landscape (ProLand) project investigation into CBFEs as a strategy for improving land management.

• 08/14/2020
• Mark Donahue, Ian Deshmukh

Half the world’s total mangrove deforestation since 2000 has taken place in Indonesia, where the main driver is conversion for shrimp ponds. A new cost-benefit analysis by the USAID-funded Climate Economic Analysis Development, Investment, and Resilience (CEADIR) Activity sheds light on the financial and economic value of mangrove conservation, including impacts on near-shore fishing and greenhouse gas emissions.

• 08/11/2020
• Dr. Eric Hyman